Jack Jack Jack!!! You are killing me and it’s only noon on a Friday. Damn! I am eating all of these nuggets for lunch and the apple that Alexis Fancher put upon your head. Love you, too, Miss Lisa Thayer.

Jennifer, what a great transformation line: you find yourself, you find yourself wondering. There’s your magic key. When you wonder, you find yourself. Not just wonder, as in daydream, but wonder, as in embracing the awesome dazzle of the universe, the wonder of it all, love and loss and solitude and solidarity. Keep wondering, and you’ll never be lost.

Jack!! Lisa!! I like it when you two team up! My appetite is so whetted for more of Jack’s haiku. I hope 301 of them will be enough. These are pretty amazing. Can’t wait for the brick, I mean book . . . .

Thanks Lisa, Alexis and of course you Jack.
Its funny I thought of Matisse, when reading these poems. How Matisse’s work evolved and developed over his lifetime, through many styles, imitation to being revolutionary and finally a crystallization. Jack, there’s perhaps a crystallization of your work with the Haiku’s. Using this simple strict form you approach the marrow of your life, your work, ideas, themes, and of course your humor, to a new clarity. Often artists particularly young ones shun form, this is natural and does create breakthroughs and you’ve done that. But also Jack you love form and the play of it and it’s history. Spiritually and Philosophically besides Shinto, Haiku is connected with Zen, it seems an easy progression in what we saw in “Sad Angels,” as an embrace of some existential ideas. These poems, as I said remind me of Matisse, to be precise, his cut outs for Jazz ( originally to be called Circus, hmm ). They are spiritual, full of grace, play with love and the love of art.

Matthew, very interesting and perceptive comments. I’ve always been a big fan of Matisse, since college. Your observation about form is right on. I think artists always have a love-hate relationship with form. One important theme of my 450 pages introduction to the 301 haiku has to do with why I chose to use the traditional 5-7-5 syllable 3-line form when many Japanese and American haiku poets no longer feel bound by that form. Many haiku poets today use a one line form, or a three line form that disregards the 5-7-5 syllable count. The whole question of form is a contentious issue with so many haiku poets, tons of essays and discourses about it. So why did I settle on the classic form when I’m certainly not a formal poet? You’ll have to read my essay to find out, n’est pas? But you’re right about the poems in many ways, the cut outs for jazz, etc. I look forward to hearing your assessment of the book when it’s out. Thanks for the trenchant comment.

thank you, jack. you are my teacher, my mentor, the great guru i credit for every word i put on paper, including shopping lists (which always contain images, moments & details), ever since i had the good fortune to attend your brilliant classes back in the 90’s, when we were all young & beautiful – which you, of course, still are.